This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Can transit ever thrive in the 905?

Taking the bus in Burlington requires patience, flexibility and a willingness to walk.

Just ask transit advocate Doug Brown, who figures he spends “easily more than half the trip” getting to and from sparsely located bus stops, and waiting for buses that arrive sporadically, often behind schedule.

Burlington's transit system suffers from low ridership in the sprawling suburban city, making it difficult to maintain lower fares and better service that might coax more people aboard. (DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

“I usually get to meetings almost an hour early, just because I need that cushion,” said the retiree.

But for riders, it seems improving service will mean trading one set of costs for another, more tangible, expense. On Monday, council is set to vote on an 8.4 per cent fare hike, which would raise cash fares from $3 to $3.25 — more than in the city of Toronto.

Slated to come into effect May 1, the proposal received unanimous support from the budget committee, contrary to the recommendation of city staff.

Article Continued Below

While critics like Brown see the proposal as yet another snub to transit users in a car-loving suburb, it reflects a common challenge in the 905, where, despite rising demand, low density and ridership rates make it difficult to fund improvements.

“If you have an area that’s really designed for a car, it means that you need to cover a lot of area to collect up the same number of people,” said Geoff Marinoff, the director of transit in Mississauga, where the adult cash fare climbed from $3 to $3.25 last year. “It’s very expensive.”

Brampton, too, recently approved a hike of about 3 per cent, pushing cash fares from $3.25 to $3.50, beginning April 1. (As is true in other municipalities, buying a pass can work out significantly cheaper.)

Because of lower ridership rates, smaller Canadian municipalities tend to subsidize their transit systems more heavily than big urban centres, according to Michael Roschlau, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

If the Burlington fare increase seems a particular affront to bus patrons there, it may be because it comes on the heels of a decision to use more of the city’s share of the federal gas tax for repaving roads — and less for transit.

Approved by council last April, the move shifted the traditional 70-30 split in funds (70 per cent for roads, 30 per cent for transit) to 80-20, taking about $500,000 out of transit capital.

But Councillor Blair Lancaster said these decisions reflect an effort to “find a balance” in a city facing other pressing infrastructure demands.

Article Continued Below

“We have a lot of drivers,” she said. “We want to get people riding bikes, we want to get people riding transit, but you can’t just tell people, ‘We’re not going to repair roads so you can’t drive your cars.’”

As Lancaster points out, the budget also contains additional funding for transit, earmarked for service expansions and a new community bus.

“Nobody wants to increase fares, but when we have services in this community, they need to be supported by people who are using them,” she said.

Although only 3 per cent of commuters in the city use transit, ridership increased by 6.9 per cent last year, to 2.2 million.

Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring maintains the fare hike, the first since 2010, “fits in very well” with the planned service improvements. However, he said staff are working on a proposal for “an automatic mechanism” for fare rate increases going forward.

“They should not be done on an ad hoc basis,” he said. “There should be some clear rationale.”

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com